Court candidate Rebecca Dallet tells San Francisco crowd 'your values are our Wisconsin values'

Patrick Marley
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Rebecca Dallet told donors in California this week that San Francisco values are Wisconsin values and spoke of the need to defeat Republicans in 2018, according to leaked audio of the event.

“San Francisco, like, this is awesome, the people,” Dallet told the crowd, according to audio circulated by the Wisconsin Republican Party.

“I know that your values are our Wisconsin values that we’ve lost along the way.”

Dallet, a Milwaukee County judge, is running against Sauk County Circuit Judge Michael Screnock in the April 3 election. The winner will replace Justice Michael Gableman, who is part of the high court’s conservative 5-2 majority.

“If she really said San Francisco values are Wisconsin values, then we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that when she talks about ‘Wisconsin Values’ it is really just code for liberal activist policies,” Screnock campaign consultant Sean Lansing said by email.

Details about the San Francisco fundraiser emerged as Screnock rolled out his first ad of the campaign, in which he touts his love of the Constitution, the rule of law — and the tuba.

Dallet campaign manager Jessica Lovejoy dismissed the criticism from Screnock's campaign.

"Judge Rebecca Dallet has spent nearly two decades more than her opponent delivering justice for the people in Wisconsin courtrooms, which is why the big-money special interests that fund her opponent's campaign are attacking her," Lovejoy said in a statement.

Dallet made her comments at a fundraiser hosted by Democrats in the California Legislature and others. She touted getting a shoutout from liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and talked about the need to re-elect U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, whom she called a “fighter for health care, a fighter for all kinds of rights that we all care about.”

Dallet also talked about the opportunity to defeat Wisconsin’s top two Republicans, Gov. Scott Walker and Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan of Janesville.

“Our governor is potentially someone we can unseat,” Dallet said.

She criticized Charles and David Koch, the industrialist billionaires who bankroll Republicans, noting Screnock’s top campaign aides formerly worked for the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity.

In addition, Dallet disclosed her campaign had provided a list of 100,000 names to a group that gets volunteers to write hand-written postcards to voters encouraging them to support liberal candidates.

Scot Ross of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now questioned whether someone broke the law to obtain the recording. California law requires everyone in a conversation to agree to be recorded, according to the Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer law firm.

Dallet is not the only one who is invoking partisan politicians with campaign outreach. In a recent mailer, Screnock appears alongside Walker in the backyard of the governor’s mansion.

Screnock announced Wednesday he would be spending six figures on his TV and cable ad through election day.

“Judge Michael Screnock: Passionate about the Constitution, the rule of law and the tuba,” a narrator says over images of law books, a gavel and a photo of Screnock playing in the University of Wisconsin-Madison marching band.

“I’m proud to have the support of a majority of Wisconsin sheriffs because they know we need a justice who respects our laws, not someone marching to their own tune rewriting them,” Screnock says before playing a few notes on his tuba.

He released his ad just days after Dallet began airing one

Here's Screnock's ad: